New York Woodlands: A Journey Through Our Forested Landscapes

We see permanence in the hills we get to know. They do not visibly change, but we can grow up with trees and see them change with us. Since they can outlive us, they connect us to the future and to the places where they grow.
–Berndt Heinrich, The Trees in My Forest, 1997
How New York Forests Evolved




How New York Forests Became Degraded
Much of the Hudson Valley was clear-cut every thirty or forty years….
–Robert Boyle, The Hudson River: A Natural and Unnatural History, 1970

In traveling these forests,… you may pass through 5, 6, and even 7 miles of unbroken forest, without discerning a single human habitation, or the least trace of the hand of man except the stumps of felled trees….
–Nathaniel Prime, 1840


How New York Forests Continue to be Degraded
Our native forests and associated biodiversity will melt away, as can already be seen in many places, if we continue to ignore these threats….






How New York Forests are being Restored


Where to See the Trees

New York Woodlands Reading List
Barnard, Edward Sibley. New York City Trees: A Field Guide for the Metropolitan Area. NY: Columbia University Press, 2002.
McCully, Betsy. City at the Water’s Edge: A Natural History of New York. Rutgers/Rivergate Press, 2007
McCully, Betsy. Land at the Glacier’s Edge: A Natural History of Long Island from the Narrows to Montauk Point. Rutgers University Press, 2024
New York Woodlands Links
Long Island Pine Barrens Society: https://www.pinebarrens.org
New York City Parks: https://www.nycgovparks.org
c. Betsy McCully 2018-2025